Republicans Pin Hopes on Midterm Elections

November Votes Could Reshape U.S. Politics

Voters are rarely kind to the occupant of the White House in the middle of his second term.

A war-weakened George W. Bush lost control of the House and Senate in 2006. Ronald Reagan suffered a similar blow 20 years earlier, when Democrats grabbed the Senate and strengthened their hold on the House. The big political question this year is whether President Barack Obama will face similarly rough treatment in November.